75 Halloween Pumpkin Carving Designs

Every year on the evening of Halloween, the City of Encinitas, in San Diego County, California in partnership with the Self Realization Fellowship puts on fun event for the whole community that includes hundreds of Halloween Pumpkin carvings. In numerous spots throughout the old downtown area along Highway 101, lighted carved and decorated pumpkins are displayed for all to enjoy. There is live music, trick of treating, and lots of people of all ages in all kinds of imaginative costumes.

The Self Realization Fellowship (also known as the SRF) owns some undeveloped land along Highway 101 where they grow pumpkins for this annual event. Each year the pumpkins are tended to and harvested by the brothers of the Self Realization Fellowship. The brothers are the monks who live at the SRF monastery. And each October, the brothers spend many hours painting and carving pumpkins in preparation for this community event.

Halloween Pumpkin Carving Designs Featured at
Annual Family Friendly Event in Encinitas

Set up nearly complete for the Halloween celebration in downtown Encinitas

In addition, all members of the SRF and of the surrounding towns are invited to come and carve and decorate pumpkins. So anyone who wants to be involved is welcome.

Some of the best and biggest pumpkin in the whole downtown Encinitas event can often be found closest to the Self Realization Fellowship. Even during the day, the cameras start coming out.

On Halloween day, it requires the work of many volunteers who set up Bales of Hay, display tables and shelves through the downtown area. Almost all of the pumpkins are lighted from within with electric lights. Once the sun begins to set, thousands of people from throughout the surrounding communities begin to arrive. People of all ages show up to enjoy the spectacle, with a large proportion of them being in all kinds of imaginative costumes. Lots of shops offer trick-or treating for the little ones. And there is family oriented live music and dancing in the LumberYard shopping area. A good time is had by all.

Halloween Pumpkin Carving Designs Light Up the Night

The pumpkin throughout town are lit from inside by electric lights.

Last year, I took photos of all of my favorite pumpkins and I’ll share all those photos with you. You will find them in blog posts to follow this one. You’ll see pumpkins in the categories listed below. There are plenty of ideas that you can use for carving and decorating your own Halloween pumpkins.

Halloween Pumpkin Carvings by Theme

There were so many different pumpkin designs that I spread them over several blog posts organized by category. Here are the categories of pumpkin carving designs that you can see in the following blog posts.

People line up to see the great variety of pumpkins. Cameras click away.

How to Create Pumpkin Carvings with Many Shades of Light and Dark

As you look at the pumpkins in these collections for photos, you might wonder about how many of these large pumpkin carvings are created. The brothers of the SRF project the artwork of their choosing onto the pumpkins using a projector. They then trace the images right onto the pumpkins. They add dark paint or black marker to make the darkest areas dark and then carve to let the light through for the lighter areas. To see an more detailed explanation of how you can achieve varying shades of light and dark, watch the video below.

Learn to Carve Pumpkin Portraits

If you want to learn more about carving 2 dimensional carvings that look 3 dimensional, you will enjoy my Pumpkin Carving Portrait Course where you will learn how to carve very recognizable portraits of your friends and family onto pumpkins. You learn a bunch of different ways to transfer your patterns and how to achieve the multi-shaded look.

Pumpkin Carving of the founder of the Self Realization Fellowship, Paramahansa Yogananda carved by Nita Gill. Nita shows how to carve portraits like this in her Pumpkin Carving Portrait Course.

Here is a photo of Paramahansa Yogananda that I carved for last year’s Halloween to honor the founder of the Self Realization Fellowship. I’ve been attending this Halloween event for over 20 years. I found the pumpkins carved by the brothers at the SRF inspiring even before I learned to carve fruits and vegetables. This was my way to pay tribute and give thanks.

About Nita Gill

Nita Gill has been producing detailed, high quality, step-by-step video lessons that teach the art of fruit carving since 2009. Nita has won competitions, judged competitions, appeared on TV and has even carved at the White House. She is pleased to now have thousands happy carving customer/ students in over 60 countries who have taken her video lesson that are designed like live classes, answering the questions that you'll have as you learn to carve.

What Customer/Students are Saying about Nita’s Lessons

“I want to thank you for your videos and lessons, I have learned a lot. I have been carving for some time now, and I found that your lessons are very informative, I found specially helpful when you include some “mistakes” that can happen and how to fix them.” Yolanda

Yolanda Diaz- Student and Carver

“Kudos to you Nita! Thank you so much for the convenience you are offering through your videos and online lessons for us carving fans. I have been collecting tools and books on fruit and vegetable carving for several years now and you are right about some things. Some books are in another language although they have a sequence of photos but even still it’s hard to grasp the flow from beginning to end. It doesn’t compare to watching someone do it. I even traveled with my daughter to take a class out of state but, it was expensive and it was just one class. Your site makes it so convenient because, as you stated, I can view the lessons any time from the comfort of my home which eliminates all the issues involved with traveling and accomodations. Your lessons are just as good as having you here with me in person. You teach clearly, thoroughly and at an easy to follow pace. I love what you have done! This was my birthday gift from my husband by the way. Oh, and I made the watermelon cake from the free lesson for my son’s 25th birthday (because he doesn’t like cake)and it was a hit with him and everyone who saw it. Thank you, thank you! I can’t thank you enough! Keep up the great work! Happy Carving!”

Wanda Olmedo- Pennsylvania

“When I first saw the carving, it was overwhelming to think of carving it. But after you showed how, it’s so much easier than it seemed.” – Shannon Hull

About The Author

Nita is inviting you into the world of fruit and vegetable carving. You'll join thousands of others who've become watermelon carving and fruit carving experts using Nita's simple and easy-to-follow food art instructions! Her how to garnish & melon carving video lessons will show you how to sculpt beautiful fruit bouquets & arrangements! Create spooky pumpkin carving creations this Halloween.